


Of Azure Seas and Crimson Strings

by ChaoticWriterCrazy



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Also it's heavily based on Japanese Mythology, Dragon!Genji - Freeform, Dragon!Hanzo, Fantasy AU, Multi, Red String of Fate, Sort of Soulmate AU, sort of
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-30
Updated: 2016-08-30
Packaged: 2018-08-12 00:18:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7913077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChaoticWriterCrazy/pseuds/ChaoticWriterCrazy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of all the things Jesse thought would happen when they finally slipped under the unforgiving waves, 'rescued by Japanese mer-people' was not even on the list of possibilities.</p><p>But that is exactly what happened. </p><p>And now they were stuck at the Japanese equivalent to Atlantis, surrounded by Japanese mythological creatures of all kinds, and not one of them speaks a lick of English.</p><p>Where the Hell was Gabriel when you needed him?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Of Azure Seas and Crimson Strings

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Drag Me Down](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7685566) by [Pence](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pence/pseuds/Pence). 



They were going to die.

There was really no point in beating around the bush.

They were going to die.

He was kind of already resigned to that fate, at least for himself. His mechanical arm kind of made that a certainty, especially since the water had finally fried its circuits. So now it was quite literally a dead weight that dragged him down to the bottom of the Japanese ocean.

He had hoped that maybe, _maybe_ Angela would be smart enough to at least try to save herself. He was screwed but she might still make it if she was a strong enough swimmer. However, the good medic refused to let him go down alone without trying to save him.

So here she was, kicking up a flurry of bubbles as she desperately tried to help Jesse swim back to the surface. And he didn't let her do all the work, he still had one good arm and both his legs. He swam as best he could.

But it was useless. They were both dehydrated and starved from the weeks spent clinging to the debris of their sunken ship.The storm only further sealed their doom, churning the water and disorienting them.

Dammit, this was really it? He survived losing his arm, survived on the streets before being taken in and finding a real family, only lose it all in _a single freak storm?!_

It wasn't fair.

His limbs were heavy as black encroached on his vision.

It wasn't fair.

He thought of Gabriel, the closest person he ever had to a father. He probably already thought Jesse was long gone by now. Did he already have a funeral?

Angela had slipped away and now he couldn't find her anywhere.

His heart ached for her poor parents. Angie was practically his sister, her step-mother Ana the closest thing he had to a mother. They had clung to the hope of seeing their mish-mosh of a family for so long, losing it now felt like a knife to the gut.

He was probably crying, the tears consumed by the uncaring sea.

_It wasn't fair._

Even as he slipped away, he felt something.

A hand? At his shoulder?

It felt weird. Not quite right.

Was it Angela? Had she found him again and was making a last valiant effort for survival?

He didn't have the energy to look and see. His body felt like it was full of lead on top of the water flooding his lungs.

Another hand grabbed his other shoulder, something big and...weird brushing against his legs.

Were those scales?

What the...

He vaguely registered movement, like he was being dragged through the water, just before death finally claimed him.

* * *

  
All at once his life coursed back into him like a tangible shock.

Almost instinctively he rolled over and hacked up copious amounts of salt water onto the smooth flooring. His oxygen starved mind reeled incoherently, unable to process how he was even able to expel water in favor of air.

Now he was definitely crying. Sobbing more like it, the sound choked between desperate gasps for air and sputtering out water. He wasn't sure if he was crying in relief or was so thoroughly overwhelmed that he was crying in reaction to his earlier fear.

His ears were ringing as his head felt warm while his face felt numb. His stomach still ached for food and his throat still parched for actual clean water. His limbs were heavy and dulled with overwhelming cold. His sight was nothing more than a blur of greens and blues that twisted and turned like he was on a tilt-a-whirl.

He’d never felt so thoroughly sick and miserable in his life.

But he was alive.

How didn’t matter.

What mattered was getting the air back in his system.

He sat there on his hands and knees, well actually his elbows and knees, taking deep slow breaths as he finally hacked up the last of the sea water. Tears were still streaming from his eyes and he was still choking on his own sobs, but he could at least breathe now. His mind was starting to reel back down and take inventory.

It was then he finally noticed the hand rubbing circles in his back, muttering something that sounded like it was supposed to be soothing.

It sounded Japanese. Except…somehow it sounded different. He was no expert on the language, but he had been stationed in Japan long enough to know it when he heard it with a fair bit of confidence. And it sounded markedly different in a way he simply could not explain.

An accent? He thought Japanese accents were too subtle for foreigners to actually notice.

Whatever, it didn’t really matter. The people who saved them deserved an ‘arigato’ at least.

Or…wait was sumimasen better? They had gone out of their way to save them, and that was how you thanked people for going through trouble for you.

But did that really apply when it was to save your life? Sumimasen was when they didn’t have to help you and if you could save somebody’s life, you really probably should. He was pretty sure it was the same even in Japan.

Oh, _whatever_. They could probably get the gist of what the half-drowned foreigner was trying to say. Japanese people tended to be very forgiving when it came to foreigners fumbling with their language. Which was lucky for him and Angie since they both sucked at -

ANGIE!

He shot straight up, looking around frantically for the blonde girl.

He found her lying not three feet away, relief overwhelming him as he saw the slow rise and fall of her chest. She was curled up next to what he presumed was her savor, who had a reassuring hand on her should-

Wait a fucking minute.

Were those... _claws_ on the guy's hands?

Those were claws.

And _scales_. He could see scales peaking out beneath the oddly traditional garb the man was wearing.

What the actual...

His attention was dragged away by a hand at his own shoulder, prompting him to turn around and face-

More scales.

This guy had scales around his cheeks and...fins for ears and... _those were horns._ Those were actual freaking antler like horns peaking out behind the blue finned ears.

Jesse stared, blinking slowly as his mind tried to process what he was seeing. It frantically searched through rationalities, trying to explain away what was kneeling next to him with something that made sense. When that didn’t work, it arrived at the only other conclusion.

They had just been rescued…by _merpeople_?

No way. They were getting punked. They were probably on some elaborate Japanese prank show. He’d seen the type of shit they pulled on those shows and it was downright _nuts_. This was absolutely within the realms of possibility. Maybe the producers or whatever hadn’t realized they were in the middle of drowning before dragging them on the show.

He refused to let his brain idly point out the obvious holes with that conclusion.

In his state of numb shock, the blue finned man somehow managed to coax him to his feet and into a seat made of white sandstone. He was so focused on the fishman that he barely registered the many, many other oddities. Like the fact they were in some time of sandstone carriage, and that the glassless window somehow kept the water out from claiming their lives. Or the fact that the mermen were both wearing robes unlike the normal traditional attire favored by Japanese men. The name of which Jesse could not remember if his life depended on it.

Right now all he could think of was how to prove his prank show theory.

Well the most obvious was to take off the prosthetic fin ears.

So he decided to do exactly that, reaching forward with his one good arm to grab hold of the offending object, to set his own nerves at ease before passing the fuck out.

He didn't notice how the fishman froze in shock, nor the faint blush on his cheeks before his fingers curled around the fin like prosthetic with the intent of pulling it off.

They both froze, dark brown eyes staring into molten gold for what felt like a breathless eternity.

Jesse's mouth slid open as a new revelation hit him like a ton of bricks.

They were real.

They were real fins.

He could feel it twitch underneath his fingers. Synthetic fins couldn't do that.

The people who had saved them…were _merpeople_.

_They were actual goddamn merpeople._

**_He and Angie had been saved by Japanese fucking MERPEOPLE._ **

It was at that moment his oxygen starved brain decided it had enough and it was time to shut everything down.

He passed out on the spot, the last thing he heard being an indignant squawk followed by a guffaw of laughter. 


End file.
